The Answers are in the Details

Our November 27th meeting was about finding the answers you're seeking in the many details you've collected for an ancestor.  There's not always that "one" definitive record that provides you with the answer you're seeking. It's a matter of collecting each and every detail possible, and then using them to build a case of proof. 

All of us have run up against a brick wall in some way or another in our genealogy research. A brick wall provides us with an opportunity to enhance our research skills. It’s the time to dig deeper into Ancestry and Family Search OR search for information on other websites OR get out into the field to dig up clues the old-fashion way.

Following are 8 tips for finding information in the details of your research:

#1 - Review and study the details in the ‘actual image’ of a record. It’s quick and easy to look at the transcribed record to determine if it’s your ancestor, but there are many more details to be gleaned by looking at the actual record. Don’t be in a hurry! Look the record over well.

#2 - Add all the details you find to your ancestor’s page. Include even the mundane details that you don’t think are important such as: godparents, witnesses at a wedding, the names of all people listed on the census record living with your family such as a grandparent, nieces, nephews, a boarder that a daughter might eventually marry, etc.

#3 - Expand your tree out to include siblings and their spouses. By adding siblings you will eventually begin to find information about your own family through the families that they married into. This is a suggestion that most people will not do! Yet, it is one of the best way to collect more information about your own family and to create a larger picture of their lives.

#4 - Study other people’s family trees. Note, that I said “study” and not “copy” what other people have on their family tree. Lots of hints can be found on other’s trees and then you can research the information yourself, or file it away until you’ve collected more information that might substantiate or disprove it.

#5 - Seek outside help. Communicate with the individuals who share some of the same ancestors as you, as well as your DNA matches. You might look at their trees and think that they don’t have the information you’re seeking but keep in mind that people do not put all of their information on their trees. They might have one record or a small bit of history that helps connect the dots for you.

If you’re frustrated or don’t know how to interpret a new piece of information, bring it to our Genealogy Help Desk on Wednesdays between 10 and 2, or post it on a FaceBook Group page. A fresh set of eyes just might pick up on some small detail you’ve missed.

#6 - Learn how to search in the area where your ancestor is from. Google the Internet for a genealogy wiki page (generally a FamilySearch.org page) that will provide information on how to do genealogy research in a county, city, state or foreign country. The more you know about the records available, the more successful you will be.

#7 - Be open to a different family story. Too many people stick hard and fast to the stories that have been handed down through the generation. I’ve seen the records prove these stories wrong many, many times. There’s usually some grain of truth in the stories but the details and many of the big events are not fully accurate. Remember, people kept family secrets - - a secret!

#8 - And, most important - - Review, Review, Review. If you’ve listed all the small details you’ve discovered in your research on your ancestor’s page it will make it easy for you to continue to review it over and over again. Look at the individual details and then sit back and look at the ‘big picture.’ Does it all work together? Does it make sense? Is something out of place?

We’re all looking for that one record that will provide us with the one piece of evidence we’re seeking. In actuality, we might need to take the small details and build a case to find the answers we seek.

November 2018

The following is a case study of how I found the hometown of my ancestor in Alsace, France without actually finding a record that provided me with the name:

Case Study of the Search for Alois and Regina (Meyer) Walter’s town of origin in Alsace, France

Background: Alois (Aloysius) and Regina were a quiet, hardworking German farm family that arrived in New York in 1840, stayed briefly in Buffalo, NY and then settled in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I searched high and low for a U.S. or Canadian record that listed the name of their town of origin in Alsace without success.

I feared I would not be able to find the “one” document that listed their town of origin, so I decided I would expand the family tree out to include all of their children and the families they married into. At least if I could not find their town of origin, I would write their history in Canada and eventually, the United States.

The Details leading to their hometown in Alsace, France

Detail #1 – Reviewed the Records & Documented the Details: I reviewed all of the records I had found on them looking for every little detail and added it to their ancestry page.

Detail #2 – Expanded the family lines of Alois & Regina’s children: When expanding their lines, I came across a lot of information on the Walter Family from books written by families they married into. A review of these family trees indicated they came from Eberbach-Seltz in Alsace, but there were no records listed proving this. I was reluctant to accept this without any substantiating documentation. I contacted some of the people and asked where they found this information. Unfortunately, they had copied it from another family tree. I never did find the tree they copied it from.

Detail #3 – Searched the Internet for other sources of information: While searching the Internet for any bit of information about this family, I came across an individual whose family history blog had the names of the cities his Alsatian ancestors originated from. We did not share any common ancestors, but I was interested to know how he had found the names of his ancestors’ towns of origin. I contacted him via email and he told me that the Alsace records for the Bas-Rhin area were online. He even located a birth, census and marriage record for Alois and Regina, from Eberbach-Seltz, for me. I was excited that this could be my family but without more proof I was hesitant to just accept it.

I looked at the Bas-Rhin, Alsace records website and discovered they were in French. I was able to use Google translate and view them in English but soon became frustrated with trying to figure out how the website worked, so I procrastinated on learning how to use it.

Detail #4 – Received an email from a distant relative: Two months ago, a distant relative, Mike Walter, discovered my tree and contacted me via Ancestry. He wanted to tell me that I have the wrong passenger list record for Alois. The one I found had him arriving in 1938. He sent me a copy of the record he found on EllisIsland.org for Alois & Regina Walter, as well as Regina’s brother Martin Meyer with an arrival date in New York, NY of January 1, 1840.

Detail #5 – Searched the Bas-Rhin Website: With this new information, I figured out how to search the Bas-Rhin website (www.archives.bas-rhim.fr) for the town of Eberbach-Seltz. I located Alois’ birth record and their marriage record dated Sunday, January 5, 1840. Now I had a new dilemma. The passenger ship record indicated an arrival date of January 1, 1840. The Bas-Rhin Archive indicated a marriage date of January 5, 1840.

  

Detail #6 – Reached out for help: Not knowing where to go from there, I posted my dilemma on the Facebook group page for “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness” asking “how do I know which record is accurate?” One individual found the same record and the entire ship’s passenger list on the Ancestry website. It never showed up as a hint or in any searches for me because Alois’ (Aloysius, Aloys) name was listed backwards as being: Walter Aloys.

She flipped back through the pages to the first page of the passenger list and discovered that the three of them had arrived on June 18, 1840, and not the January 1, 1840 date as specified on the Ellis Island website. That dilemma was now resolved. They married January 5, 1840 in Alsace and arrived in New York harbor, five months later, on June 18, 1840.

Detail #7 – Searched the Bas-Rhin Website:  I continued to search through the Bas-Rhin website (www.archives.bas-rhim.fr) for the town of Eberbach-Seltz. As I browsed through the birth and marriage records, I started to recognize some familiar names that I had come across on other people’s Walter family trees: Arth, Stoltz, Meyer, Walter and Illig. My plan was to see if any of these or other Eberbach-Seltz families had traveled on the same ship with Alois and Regina, or had lived near them in Canada. The ‘illig’ name stood out because I remember it was such an unusual surname. At first, I thought it was an abbreviation for ‘illegitimate’ but realized that didn’t make sense. I knew the exact record I had seen that name on. It was the baptism record for Alois and Regina’s first born child Bernard born in Buffalo, NY shortly after their arrival. Upon reviewing that baptismal record, it was confirmed that Bernard Illig and Marguerite Lorentz were his sponsors.

I searched the Alsace records for them and found birth records for both of them. At this point, I was feeling very confident that both Alois and Regina were from Eberbach-Seltz. When I jotted down the names of the parents of Bernard Illig, I discovered that he and Alois’ mothers have the same surname. At this point, it is unknown to me if they are sisters or cousins.  These records also reflect that the families mentioned above have inter-married many times in Alsace. Bernard Illig also immigrated from Buffalo, NY to Ontario, Canada and lived in the same area as Alois and Regina.

The records also revealed that Alois & Regina are from the district (Arrondissement) of Wissenbourgh located in the town (Commune) of Eberbach-Seltz in the region (Department)of the Bas-Rhin (lower Rhine) area in Alsace, France.

Ending Note: Hopefully, this case study and the ‘eight tips handout’ will open your mind to the possibilities of ways you can find missing pieces of information in your own family tree. It NEVER occurred to me that I might be able to locate their home town by putting details together and asking strangers for help. Your unanswered questions might be different from mine but I do believe the same tips will be beneficial in any situation.